Julie Kenner's Blog, page 113
July 11, 2012
Strong girls and radioactive spider bites
It’s hump day, and I’m looking forward to the weekend. Going to take the girls to see BRAVE — I’ve heard mixed reviews; some folks seem to love it, and some are completely underwhelmed. But as far as I can tell without scouring the reviews and accidentally picking up on spoilers, it’s a fabulous mommy/daughter movie … and it’s just NOT scary enough that Isabella can handle it, despite her tender sensibilities. So we’ve got a date for Saturday.
Sunday is definitely not on the Isabella seal of approval: THE AMAZING SPIDERMAN. Looking forward to that one a lot!
I’ve managed to avoid spoilers, details, reviews of both films (something I usually don’t do). So I hope they live up to my expectations. But, hey. Summer. A cool theater. Popcorn. How disappointed could I be?
Seen any good movies lately? I’d love recommendations for theater or dvd viewing!
And don’t forget — my book, THE CAT’S FANCY, is on sale for the rest of this week only for 99 cents. And for the rest of this month, 50% of my proceeds are going to Austin Pets Alive! to help save Austin animals and get them into homes.
July 5, 2012
Sale! Sale! One Week Only! (And a bonus, too! — Please share!)
“…funny, witty, and unbelievably erotic.”—Affaire de Coeur
Hurry hurry!! For one week only, I’m offering the Kindle and Nook editions of THE CAT’S FANCY for just 99 cents!
Not only do you get a fun, classic, light romance (this was my very first single title romance; it’s in the vein of The Little Mermaid and lots of fun), but you also help save an animal, because 50% of my June and July proceeds are going to Austin Pets Alive!
“sensual, paranormal romance with a fresh twist and endearing cats…uh, characters.”—HeartRateReviews
Please help spread the word! The more books that sell, the more animals we can help!
July 4, 2012
Happy Fourth of July
Come join the celebration at The Whine Sisters! Fireworks and my favorite Revolutionary War-related comedy routine from the master, Bill Cosby!
July 3, 2012
Have you hugged someone today?
Everyday counts, people! Do the folks you love know you love them? Call a friend, hug a child, kiss a parent and your spouse! It matters! Not only does a hug lift someone else up by its very nature (and that’s a super nice feeling), but you just never know how many days you have in you left to give hugs.
Sound morbid? I guess it does a little, but I really don’t mean it to. It’s just that I had a little scare the other day. I’ve had vertigo for years (note to all of you: head injuries are bad), but about 6 weeks ago it kicked into high gear along with a freaky pressure in my head and ringing in my ears. It finally got bad enough that I went to the ER on Friday. The good news is that they did all sorts of tests and everything scary was ruled out. I have to see an ENT, but the ER docs gave me meds that have pretty much nipped the problem in the bud.
I’m a happy camper.
But I couldn’t help think of the people who go to the ER thinking it’s nothing and then find out that there’s a shadow on their CT scan. Or something off with their bloodwork. Or, for that matter, the people who get in their car to go to the grocery story and don’t come home because a drunk driver was on the road that day.
Life is precious folks. Savor it. Enjoy it. Hug your kids, kiss your spouse, cherish your friends and family. And don’t forget to pamper yourself, too, in the process.
June 26, 2012
WHEN DARKNESS HUNGERS: Release Day!!!!
Serge's book! Coming in July!
Yay!!! I’m so excited because it’s release day for WHEN DARKNESS HUNGERS, book 5 in the Shadow Keepers series. And, I have to confess, that this book features one of my favorite characters. (I know that, like a mom, you’re not supposed to have a favorite.) Sergius is just so horribly tortured, and his been through so much, that it was a pleasure to finally give him his own book, and a heroine who matches him.I hope you check it out!
Order WHEN DARKNESS HUNGERS from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Random House, or your favorite bookseller.
June 25, 2012
Never go hungry again?
Scarlett won't go hungry again...me neither!
Meat. Lots and lots of meat. That’s what we’ve got in our freezer … and it’s awesome. (And was almost tragic!)Since my family eats paleo/primal (which essentially means that we eat whole, natural foods and avoid processed junk), we have found that it is very, very economical to buy an entire cow and stock up the freezer. (Interested? Check out Mark’s Daily Apple for more info on Primal living, which is a good jumping off point.)
We’ve done this three times now, the first time with half a cow, the second with a normal sized cow, and the third with a cow that was, essentially, one humongous cow. As in, about 700 pounds of grass fed beef. As in, if we didn’t own a mini-van, we woulda been screwed getting it home!
We went to pick up the beef (all neatly packaged and deep frozen) just few weeks ago from Cross Creek Cattle Company in South/Central Texas (near College Station). Cross Creek is awesome! We absolutely love the owners, their customer service and, most of all, the product. If you’re in Texas and looking for a source of grass fed beef, check them out.
At any rate, we arrived home after a lovely drive to the country, unpacked our 700+ pounds of meat, and found ourselves with an entirely full 15 cubic foot freezer, along with a 10 cubic foot top loader and the bottom freezer portion of our garage fridge. A LOT of beef! We were set for probably a year!
And then…the horrible morning.
I’m lounging on the couch, Don goes out into the garage, and all of a sudden I hear him calling for me. The freezer was left open (my fault; I’d pulled some ground beef to defrost the night before) and everything was melting.
Let me repeat that: EVERYTHING WAS MELTING.
Fortunately, the meat had started out really, really, really, really deeply frozen, so even though we’re talking hot Texas temperatures, we weren’t yet to spoils-ville. But there was no refreezing this meat. No refreezing FIFTEEN CUBIC FEET of meat.
So what did we do? We put the kitchen in our still relatively new house to good use. Yes, folks, over the course of one Sunday and part of a Monday I cooked an insane amount of food (when I went to bed on Sunday, I had twelve–count ‘em–twelve roasts cooking in the stove and a variety of crockpots.)
And now my freezer looks like this: 
Oh yeah, we've got food!
The upside? We are set for easy meals for about, oh, forever! (And we still have meat in the other freezers, too.). Where’s the BBQ? I guess it’s at our house!
Got any food crises to share? I’d love to hear about them. (You can rest assure my freezer fiasco will end up in a book…maybe your story will, too!)
June 13, 2012
June 8, 2012
Buy CAT and help a cat (or a dog!)
Right now, the book is only $2.99, and 50% of your purchase price will go to Austin Pets Alive! dedicated to helping make Austin a no-kill city, and doing an awesome job. Snag a copy and help an animal!
More info coming soon, but I wanted to get the word out there that I’m donating 50% of my Nook & Kindle proceeds for the sale of THE CAT’S FANCY during the month of June and July to Austin Pets Alive! a fabulous organization that is working hard to make Austin a no-kill city.More details soon…consider this a drive by posting! And spread the word. I’m hoping to raise as much money as possible for these awesome animals and this amazing organization.
June 6, 2012
The “Supreme” Key to Creating Characters
This post continues where Monday’s post (From Supreme Ruler of the Universe to Girl Next Door: How to Write Believable Characters) left off.
You, as the supreme ruler of your story, have given your character a goal. Excellent. And your goal as a writer is to create a well-paced story that has compelling characters and organic plot progression. Believe it or not, all that stems from what your characters want (their goal) and how much they want it (how motivated they are).
At the beginning of your story, something is going to happen that creates either a desire or a necessity for change (trying to win the girl, for example, would be a desire; being thrust into a room full of terrorists and trying to survive is a desire, sure, but it stems from necessity). That’s the moment when the story truly gets going, and it’s often called the Inciting Incident. If a character’s desire is so strong as to either create the inciting incident or move them through it, then the character’s desire is creating action. That’s motivation, and it’s the engine of your story.
Motivation does not have to be complex, but it does have to be compelling. Look at Bruce Willis in Die Hard. He wants to save his wife. That straight-forward desire creates forward momentum for an entire movie, and leads to lots of sub-goals that go into bringing that desire to fruition.
Similarly, Scarlett O’Hara is motivated to have money so that she never has to suffer from being poor again. That desire drives the entire second half of the story. It’s a simple, universally understood desire, and yet it drives one of the most well-known characters of our time.
So where does that motivation come from? Character background … and that translates to backstory.
With regard to Scarlet, for example, we see much of the backstory of her goal to acquire wealth. She practically starved after the war, and that’s strong motivation to have money to buy food, have nice things, be self-sufficient.
But what if your backstory doesn’t support your character’s goal? I’ve written and critiqued a lot of pages over the course of my career, and this is something that comes up quite often. That’s understandable; the creative process is fluid. But it’s that fluidity that’s key. I’ve worked with writers who dig in their heels, insisting that X and Y is what happened to little Johnny back when he was a child and that’s why he is the way he is. But X and Y don’t support the fact that little Johnny is now a determined loner who floats from town to town saving people from vampires. The backstory doesn’t fit the goal, and the character doesn’t fit into the box created by the author.
Worse, the author refuses to adjust the backstory because “that’s his story.”
But you’re the god of this story–you created the character. You created the backstory. If it doesn’t work, fix it!
In my very first book, I needed better motivation for what my hero was doing. He was essentially committing a crime (impersonating someone) and my editor rightly pointed out that he needed a stronger motivation. In draft one, he’s an only child. But upon revisions — who knew! — he suddenly acquired a brother, not to mention an entire life with that sibling. And guess what? That one seemingly small change altered everything and a story that didn’t work now flowed.
So fiddle with backstory, folks. You’ll be surprised just how “motivating” that can be.
I’ve been loosely doing Writing Wednesdays, but I’m going to do them with more regularity in the future. So next Wednesday, look for a post on the process of crafting backstory. When do you start working on it? How? What’s the word on character dossiers and interviews. Fun stuff!
Are you a writer? Have you ever ripped out a backstory and changed it entirely?
